Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 16.pdf/646

 The Judicial History of Individual Liberty.

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THE JUDICIAL HISTORY OF INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. IX. BY VAN VECHTEN VEEDER. Of the New Yoik Bar. AFTER an era of comparative tranquility the Chartist movement appeared. The Reform Bill of 1832 was really a class move ment, and the vague discontent among the mass of the people soon concentrated in the movement for further reform, to which Dan iel O'Connell gave the name "Chartism. The principal points of the charter" were manhood suffrage, annual parliaments, vote Ъу ballot, abolition of the property qualifica tion for members of Parliament, payment of members, and division of the country into «qual electoral districts. The movement was backed by much enthusiasm and intelligence, accompanied, as usual, by an undercurrent of feeling in favor of violent measures. In connection with any considerable external complications this agitation might have at tained serious proportions. But the govern ment, profiting by past experience, met the •emergency, upon the whole, with good sense and discretion. Reasonable reforms were conceded, and in so far as its claims were vis ionary and unreasonable, Chartism died from public exposure. The judicial history of Chartism may be said to begin with the trial of Frost in 1839. Vincent's imprisonment at Newport in that year was the occasion of an attempted res cue which certainly approached armed re bellion. On November 4, 1839, a force of nearly ten thousand workingmen, most of them armed in some way, marched to New port, apparently without any definite design. But eventually, some five thousand men, un der the leadership of Frost, attacked an inn occupied by a small detachment of troops. The mob was dispersed with a loss of thirty lives, and Frost and two others were brought to trial for treason (4 St. Tr., N. S. 85).

Frost was a respectable trader of New port, who had been a local magistrate, but had been deprived of his commission in con sequence of his intemperate participation in the Chartist movement. His trial is in every way interesting. Chief Justice Tindal pre sided with a dignity and fairness worthy of the best traditions of the English bench. Attorney-General Campbell, Solicitor-Gen eral Wilde, and Sergeant Taulford prose cuted for the crown. Sir Frederick Pollock and Sir Fitzroy Kelly defended Frost. The indictment contained the usual counts charg ing levying war against Her Majesty, with intent to depose her and to compel her to change her measures. In spite of the very able and impassioned defense the prisoners were convicted. The jury undoubtedly 'took the view that there was sufficient ground to suppose an ulterior purpose of setting in mo tion a great rebellious movement. In conse quence, however, of an irregularity in the de livery of the list of crown witnesses, the death penalty was commuted to transportation for life. In the Chartist prosecutions from 1839 to 1843, the law relating to seditious conspir acy and unlawful assembly was formulated upon modern lines by such judges as Patter son and Rolfe. Whenever a body of persons meet together in such a manner and under such circumstances as reasonably to excite terror and alarm in the neighborhood the as sembly is unlawful. The most instructive trials are those of Stephens (3 St. Tr., N. S. 1149), Feargus O'Conor (4 ib. 935), and Cooper (4 ib. 1249). As long as there were no foreign compli cations Chartism aroused no serious fears in England. But the condition of affairs in